Tom Clancy's Op-Centre - Games of State - Tom Clancy

...online - 08/09/05).
Author: Tom Clancy (Born 1947) and Steve Pieczenik and Jeff Rovin
Paperback 512 pages (February 7, 2005)
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0006498442
Category: Fiction, Action

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tom Clancy was born in 1947and was an insurance broker. He published his first novel, The Hunt for Red October in 1984 and shot to the Bestseller list. A number of his books, ...
...is the third book from Tom Clancy in regards to the OP-CENTRE stories. NOTE: These are not Jack Ryan stories, but a completely different set of stories which Tom Clancy co-writes.

OP Centre is a new centre for crisis management run by Director Paul Hood. See my previous reviews on Op-Centre for further details on the background.

MAIN CHARACTERS IN BOOK:

Paul Hood - Director of OP CENTRE

... more

OPCENTRE - GAMES OF STATE:

FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK:

List Price in £6.99 (Currently £5.59 on Waterstone's online - 08/09/05).
Author: Tom Clancy (Born 1947) and Steve Pieczenik and Jeff Rovin
Paperback 512 pages (February 7, 2005)
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0006498442
Category: Fiction, Action

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tom Clancy was born in 1947and was an insurance broker. He published his first novel, The Hunt for Red October in 1984 and shot to the Bestseller list. A number of his books, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears have all been made into Movies.

BACKGROUND ON THE BOOK:

This is the third book from Tom Clancy in regards to the OP-CENTRE stories. NOTE: These are not Jack Ryan stories, but a completely different set of stories which Tom Clancy co-writes.

OP Centre is a new centre for crisis management run by Director Paul Hood. See my previous reviews on Op-Centre for further details on the background.

MAIN CHARACTERS IN BOOK:

Paul Hood - Director of OP CENTRE

General Mike Rodgers - Deputy Director and Commander of
Striker - OP CENTRE Military Branch

Bob Herbert - Chief of Intelligence

Lowell Coffey III - Op Centre's Lawyer

ABOUT THE BOOK

This book, GAMES OF STATE starts very well with an attack in Germany by Neo Nazis on a movie set and with a number of killings (about the first 30 odd pages)

It then moves on to the pursuit of a leader of a billion dollar a year business in France, who plans on crashing the European economy and encourage civil disorder in America through video games. It revolves around Op-Center catching this person and battling the problem of White Supremacy groups. (This is then about the next 400 odd pages).

The ending is quite unbelieveable as far as I would say as it involves one of the OP CENTRE people gate crashing a Neo-Nazi rally but maybe you will like it.

MY OPINION:

I thought this book was OK and if you are bored then do read it. The stories can be interesting, but in parts get quite slow and is definitely not a book that really grips you. I am a massive Tom Clancy fan, but these books really did not inspire me to purchase them.

Unfortunately within the OP-CENTRE books there are always loads of technical details which can leave some people confused, so if you do not like having loads of things explained, then don't read this.

I would recommend that if you have not read any OP CENTRE books yet and you want to try them out, then purchase the first OP CENTRE book and read them in order. As per usual, all of the books do follow on from each other, and if you miss a book or come in half way then you will not get the full benefit of what has happened before

One of the only parts that I enjoy in all of the Op-Centre books is that you do really begin to get close to the characters as you read through the books. Unfortunately I do find that each book varies a lot from previous books as they seem to be written by many different authors. It is however important to read them in order as I have mentioned above as you will never understand the important relationships between the various staff members if not read in order.

All in all, these books are OK, but not great. They are worth reading if you are bored, but I would not go out specifically to buy them, especially not when Tom Clancy has so many other books which are so much better.

Verdict: 2 out of 5
 

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